REVIEW – Portable chargers are getting smaller! I received one of those recently to review – the Anker Nano II 65W GaN II PPS Fast Charger Adapter. It’s AWESOME! It’s so small and charges my Lenovo Yoga 730 laptop and my Pixel 2 XL phone in the same amount of time (or less) as their OEM chargers (just short of two hours for each device). And it charged our 12.9″ iPad Pro 2018 much faster than its OEM USB-C charger and an iPhone 12 at 14 W. Basically, it charged all our laptops (Lenovos), tablets (iPads), and phones (iPhone 12’s and Pixel 2 XL) quickly and without any problems.
What is it?
The Anker Nano II 65W GaN II PPS Fast Charger Adapter is a travel wall adapter that has a USB-C power delivery port that can deliver up to 65 W of power to your laptops, tablets, and phones. It uses Gallium Nitride semiconductors instead of silicon semiconductors to make the charger smaller, faster, and more efficient.
What’s in the box?
- Anker Nano II 65W GaN II PPS Fast Charger Adapter
- User Manual
- Satisfaction card
Hardware specs
- Total Wattage: 65 W
- Input: 100-240V~ 2.1A 50-60Hz
- Output: 3.0 A @ 5.0 V; 3.0 A @ 9.0 V; 3.0 A @ 15.0 V; 3.25 A @ 20.0 V (65W Max)
- Dimensions: 1.65″ x 1.42″ x 1.74″ (42 mm x 36 mm x 44 mm)
- Weight: 3.96 ounces
Compatibility
Notebooks and Tablets:
- MacBook Air 2020, MacBook Pro 13”, Dell XPS 13 9360/9380, ThinkPad E490, HP Spectre Folio, ThinkPad X390, Google Pixelbook, Microsoft Surface Book 2, and iPad 2018 and later.
Phones and Accessories:
- iPhone 12 / Pro / mini / Pro Max / SE 2020 / 11 / 11 Pro / 11 Pro Max / XS / XS Max / XR / X / 8 Plus / 8 / 7 Plus / 7 / 6 Plus, iPad mini 5 / 4, iPad Pro, Apple Watch, AirPods
- Galaxy S21 / S21+ / S21 Ultra / Galaxy S10 / S10+ / S10e / S9 / S9+ / S8 / S8+, Note 20 / 20 Ultra / 10 / 9 / 8
- Google Pixel 3 and later, Pixel 3a / 3XL / 3 / 2 XL / 2
- Sony XZ3, Sony Xperia 1, Nintendo Switch, and Anker magnetic wireless charger with USB-C cable.
Design and features
The Anker Nano II 65W GaN II PPS Fast Charger Adapter measures 1.65″ x 1.42″ x 1.74″. It’s made of matte grey plastic with a silver (possibly aluminum) face and has one USB-C power delivery port.
The bottom of the charger displays the charger’s specs. It can deliver up to 65 W total output. To increase portability, the charger’s prongs fold up when not being used.
Performance
The Anker Nano II 65 W USB-C charger provides my laptop with 38-40 W of power when charging which is comparable to Lenovo’s OEM 65 W USB-C charger (38.2 W). When using the Anker wall charger to charge my laptop, it did so in about 1 hour 50 minutes (from about 0% to 100%) without any issues.
The Anker charger also provided about 31 W to our 12.9″ iPad Pro 2018 versus the 17 W provided by its OEM charger. 
The Anker charger charged our 7th generation iPad at about 11 W.
And it charged an iPhone 12 at 14-19 W.
I then used the Anker charger to charge my Pixel 2 XL phone at its full speed which is about 12 W. It took about 2 hours to charge it.
Another awesome benefit of the small wall charger is that it doesn’t block the other outlet when it is plugged in!
There were some reviews on Amazon and on Anker’s website that said their adapter got really hot. The Anker Nano II 65 W charger does get warm, but I don’t think it gets that hot. It seemed on par with other wall chargers I’ve used.
What I like
- It charged all of our devices (laptops, tablets, and phones)
- When charging, it often charged better than the OEM chargers
- It’s very compact and portable
- It doesn’t block the other outlet when plugged in
What I’d change
- I’d love to see a 100 W version!
Final thoughts
The Anker Nano II 65W GaN II PPS Fast Charger Adapter is a well-made USB-C PD travel wall charger in a wonderfully compact size. It provides up to 65 W of power to devices and thus I was able to charge my Lenovo Yoga 730 (38 W, charging time ~1 hour 50 minutes) and Pixel 2 XL (12 W, charging time ~2 hours) in the same amount of time (or less) as their OEM USB-C chargers (38 W and 10 W respectively). It also charged our 12.9″ iPad Pro 2018 much faster (31 W) than its OEM charger (17 W) and iPhone 12 at 14 W.
It also has the added benefit of not blocking the other outlets when it is plugged in. The Anker charger did get warm when charging devices, but it did not appear overly hot to me.
I loved the Anker Nano II 65W GaN II PPS Fast Charger Adapter so much, I purchased another. None of my devices need more than 65 W so this works for me; but if you need more power, well, maybe Anker is working on a 100 W travel charger? That would be awesome!
Price: $49.99
Where to buy: Amazon or Anker
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Anker.
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You didn’t even test if it can actually output 65W!!!
Bob – I don’t have anything in my house that draws that kind of power. I’m aware that some MacBooks do, but we don’t have anything like that. Do you have any suggestions about how to test it?
There is a USB-C load tester available to do just what you asked, but I don’t have access to that kind of equipment.
Anyway, I did all that I could think of to test the wall charger (I used a USB-C meter to measure power draw, I used a USB-C cable capable of 100 W power delivery, the Anker 65 W wall charger, and our most power hungry devices).
I’m open to suggestions on how to test this…
hi kathleen, thnaks for the detailed review! i have a question, as i just received this exact charger myself: how does one know if the charger is… charging?
previous models on anker chargers i’ve seen has lights that would flash when charging.
is there anything on this one?
thank you!
Elise – Sorry about the delay! This charger doesn’t have status lights to indicate that a device is charging. You’ll have to rely on your device to indicate that it’s charging. All my devices (e.g. earbuds, phones, laptops, portable batteries, Bluetooth speakers, etc.) have status lights or icons that let me know when they’re plugged into power.